TCEB refines role as ‘growth driver’ for business events industry

TCEB's Nichapa Yoswee and TICA's Sumate Sudasna at the press briefing yesterday

Not content to be just a facilitator in the business events sector, the Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB) is repositioning its role into that of a co-creator, partner, collaborator and thought leader (CPCT) as it seeks to proactively raise Thailand’s profile globally and woo international business events into the country.

The new CPCT role that TCEB seeks to assume is a natural extension of the ‘Thailand: Redefine Your Business Events’ branding launched last year, informed Nichapa Yoswee, TCEB’s senior vice president – business, who unveiled the CVB’s latest marketing push and tradeshow strategy at a press conference in Bangkok yesterday.

TCEB’s Nichapa Yoswee and TICA’s Sumate Sudasna at the press briefing yesterday

TCEB’s redefined positioning is essentially a vision of the organisation to move with the times and be “at the forefront” of the business events sector, Nichapa told TTGmice.

“We need to be a growth driver, not a growth supporter. A facilitator role is not enough and is too passive,” she said. “We also need to present a standardised voice to attract events into Thailand.”

Nichapa also pointed out that the government’s Thailand 4.0 model, which identified 10 key industries for growth (future automative, smart device, health tourism, biotechnology, food processing, robotics, aviation and logistics, biofuel and biochemical, digital, and integrated medical service) has given “tremendous clarity” on the focus sectors for TCEB.

“Deepening partnerships” with major business events players will now form a key tenet of TCEB’s new marketing plan and tradeshow strategy. “2019 will be the year of partnerships. This year the key aim is not just selling destinations and winning business,” said Nichapa.

TCEB’s partnership strategy is already evident in its SITE inspection scheme, which sees the organisation joining forces with major local industry partners including Thai Airways International and Bangkok Airways to launch the ASEAN MaxiMICE and Fly & Meet Double Bonus subvention schemes respectively earlier this year to attract MICE events from the regional market.

At IT&CM China in Shanghai last week, it also rolled out the Golden Pig Reward – named after the current Year of the Pig – to reward Chinese meeting and incentive groups visiting Thailand with a financial subsidy of 200,000 baht (US$6,305) per group.

Moving forward, tradeshows will be a key “launching pad” for deepening partnerships, as they not only provide a platform to showcase Thailand’s MICE readiness to attract overseas events, but also improve confidence of overseas delegates’ confidence in the country, said Nichapa.

TCEB will look at strengthening partnerships with existing partners and identifying new ones at upcoming tradeshows where it has confirmed attendance, including IMEX Frankfurt, IMEX America and IBTM World in Spain.

A key example of this new partnership effort can be seen with TCEB’s partnership with the Asian Association of Conventions and Visitors Bureau to develop a model for economic impact assessment of the business events industry to equip Asian CVBs with a common and reliable tool to justify and show the industry’s impact on economic growth.

TCEB will also seek to match local and international PCOs for collaboration in organising business events in Thailand. One key way is to work with ICCA to target overseas PCOs who are ICCA members.

As well, Thailand Incentive and Convention Association (TICA) is set to play an integral and enhanced involvement as a long-time partner of TCEB, said president Sumate Sudasna. He said: “We want to be a vehicle to assist event growth and investment into Thailand.”

Not only will TICA offer more training and education opportunities for members to grow their professionalism, the association has been also appointed by TECB to select industry applicants for overseas tradeshows.

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